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Level of tennis in Nigeria okay - Smith
An International Tennis Federation (ITF)
supervisor and referee, South African Iian Smith, has praised the level of
tennis development in Nigeria. He said though Nigeria does not have players who
have really reached the peak, it still is at the forefront of tennis playing
nations because of the high number of Futures tournaments it hosted annually
and the calibre of players that come from outside to participate in such
competitions. The South African said this was a good thing for the country.
According to Smith, “Nigeria is not
doing badly considering the number of Futures tournaments it hosted annually.
This year alone, Nigeria has hosted four ITF Futures events, which was the
highest in the continent and it is good for tennis development.”
He was full of praises for Nigerian players
whom he said were good but needed more exposure. He said that the fact that Jonathan
Igbinovia reached the final of the last Heineken Open tennis tournament and the
semi-finals of the Governor Tinubu Tennis Championship were signs that the
country has good players and also that tennis has come of age in the country.
“When you have one of your players in the final of the Heineken
Championship, what does that tell you? It shows that the country is making
progress. It shows that if the players are exposed more to international
tournaments, they would definitely do well.”
Asked to make a comparison between the
Governor’s and Heineken Championships, Smith said, “I cannot make a
comparison between both because both championships are entirely different. You
should know that for both, the prize monies are different and the higher the
prize money, the higher the quality of players that would participate in them.
At the same time, the higher the prize money, the higher the ATP points as
well.”
Smith said the prize money for the
Governor’s Cup was lower than that of the Heineken Championship. He said
that when the Governor’s tournament ended having attracted highly ranked
players who later left, more quality players also came for the Heineken
tournament. This, he said, was the difference between both tournaments.
“Both are different,” he said.
“I wouldn’t want to believe that one was tougher than the
other,” he added.
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